Thursday, May 19, 2011

For Eddie: Dabbing

This is some really important shit. Stop drawing and study animation mimes instead.You'll want your cartoon characters to act like this if you want true believability.Ask Eddie what it all means.Clips:

HAW! Steven, the piece I did about Ed Hooks on Theory Corner was satire. I'm not a believer in the Hooks method. DelSarte (theoritician of the old melodramatic school) on the other hand...maybe there's a little bit of something there if you dig for it.

This reminds me of a dance theory that, oddly enough, we used in my conducting class (I'm a music major). Laban Movement Analysis (just wiki it already) analyzes movements by their weight, speed, and direction. Combinations of these three characteristics produce distinct movements that can aid in purposeful movement. I'm not sure if it'd help that much in the world of animation, but the integrity of animation preached in this blog has, I think, helped me as a musician.

oh man.. you guys are brutal... i used to take acting classes with Ed in Chicago. (Stage acting, not for animation). he's an outstanding teacher and he's done enough stage/tv/film work to be credible. i dunno about this stuff, tho...

One should realize when watching the Hooks clip that he is deliberately doing something equivalent to pulling every kind of smile or frown he can think of in one go, all in a row. I think the clip is probably meant to be as ridiculous as possible, to get your attention - not necessarily to demonstrate the technique at it's best. I imagine even "dabbers" don't dab constantly, because no actual scene would ever, EVER call for that. It's like watching an animation test that's just a demo of one or two principles at a time on a endless loop - say, an eternally air-chewing Disney Dwarf mouth. You would never approve of it as a "scene", but you'd show it to your animation students nonetheless.

Another thing about teaching physical acting - and I have seen this firsthand many times - is that it can be incredibly difficult to get an average, "modest" (i.e. young and thus painfully awkward) person, however curious and open-minded, to DO something -ANYTHING!- Until you have made them laugh at you, then at themselves, and enjoyed it. It's called an "ice-breaker". Sometimes they backfire, but the risk usually pays off, especially with kids.

That said, the adherence to these sorts of clownish methods in however complex a combination probably still constrains acting in much the same way that Disney animators limited themselves early on and continue to do so today. But we know Eddie, and Eddie never brings up something that isn't worth discussing and analyzing. It's like his super-power.

Do you recommend the book "Acting: The First Six Lessons" John? I figure if i'm gonan be an animator, i may as well know how to act myself so that i can apply it to my own cartoons. Expressions don't mean anything unless you have thought process, personality and context backing them up, right?

Granted, i did do one stage play that brought the house down, but i'm not all that confident in my own acting abilities.